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City devastated by OxyContin use sues Purdue Pharma, claims drugmaker put profits over citizens' welfare

Heroin remains an enormous problem in the region, with more than 40 residents fatally overdosing each year and government resources severely taxed. The sole detox center in Snohomish County has only 16 beds, but on any given day the jail might have up to 160 inmates in need of detox, officials said. Everett last year spent $160,000 removing trash from a single city block that has become an open-air drug market. Homelessness has exploded, with addicts living in encampments along highways, behind stores and in wooded areas throughout the city.

Heroin resurgence an 'unintended consequence' of attempt to curb OxyContin abuse, study finds
Heroin resurgence an 'unintended consequence' of attempt to curb OxyContin abuse, study finds
“A lot of individuals we are coming across have worked, have had a job, and somehow they were introduced to prescription drugs,” said Staci McCole, one of two social workers recently embedded with the Everett Police Department to help officers handle addicts.

City lawyers wrote in their suit that the heroin crisis “is directly attributable to Purdue’s wrongful and tortious conduct.”

“We believe that the flooding of the city with OxyContin caused the crisis,” said Hil Kaman, Everett’s public health and safety director. “Our capacity to respond has been overwhelmed, and Purdue should pay for the harm they caused.”

Although Everett is the first municipality to sue Purdue solely on the basis of criminal sales of its drug, other jurisdictions trying to recoup costs of the opioid epidemic have raised the issue, along with claims of fraudulent marketing. Two California counties that sued the company in 2014 said that Purdue knowingly profited from criminal dealings of its drug, citing as evidence the company’s Region Zero program, a secret database of more than 1,800 suspect doctors first revealed by The Times. By the company’s own admission, fewer than 10% of those doctors had been reported to law enforcement.

After the newspaper’s July story, the New Hampshire attorney general issued a subpoena for company records related to criminal trafficking in that state. The company has refused to turn over the material and is battling the state in appellate court over its use of outside lawyers.

Federal regulators have cracked down on opioid wholesalers in recent years for facilitating criminal trafficking. McKesson, one of the nation’s largest of these distributors, paid a $150-million fine this week to settle allegations that it had failed to report suspicious orders to authorities.

The Times’ investigation showed that Purdue had more extensive evidence of suspected criminal trafficking nationally than any single distributor. But historically, manufacturers have not been held responsible for preventing the illicit sales of their drugs.

Experts had mixed opinions about Everett’s chances of recovering money. The suit has similarities to litigation against firearm manufacturers by states and cities deluged with gun violence, experts said. Some of those cases succeeded, but many did not.

Richard Ausness, a University of Kentucky law professor who has written about suits against Purdue, said that the evidence in gun cases was often attenuated, such as sales data showing huge weapons sales in areas with small populations and loose gun laws.

“They didn’t have the specific knowledge that Purdue had,” said Ausness. Purdue “knew that clinic was a front for a criminal enterprise and you don’t really see anything that specific in gun litigation.”

University of Florida law professor Lars Noah, who teaches pharmaceutical regulation and public health law, said he was doubtful that a court would accept Everett’s claim that Purdue was liable for the addiction crisis under the public nuisance statute.

“These theories have been tried with other industries that sell consumer goods and courts with rare exceptions have decided it is too much of a stretch,” Noah said, adding that he considered the case “more of a publicity stunt.”

In Everett, those personally affected by illicit use of OxyContin said they were heartened by the city’s suit. Debbie Warfield’s son, Spencer, became addicted to the drug after high school, often buying pills from street dealers. He later switched to heroin.

“You just couldn’t imagine how your son could be shooting up heroin. It was beyond belief,” Warfield said.

Spencer Warfield died of an overdose in 2012. He was 24.

Of Purdue, she said, “I definitely think they need to take some responsibility.”

“Honestly, it makes me want to cry because it is so overdue,” said Lindsey Greinke, a former OxyContin and heroin addict who now runs an Everett nonprofit that helps people afford detox and treatment programs. “I hope something actually comes of it. We need it.”

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